4 stars out of 5
Sosie Bacon was wonderfully messed up as the junkie birth mom in Mare of Easttown, and she radiated warmth as the caretaker of autistic young adults in As We See It. Here, in Smile, she gets to do both — though admittedly a lot more of the screwed up stuff.
You’ve likely seen the trailer — heck, you’ve probably seen the movie too; I did a couple of weeks ago and haven’t had a chance to review it yet, sorry!! — but here are the basics. Bacon is a psychiatric doctor, and a new patient is seeing things — seeing someone — who isn’t there. Someone who is smiling widely. And bad things happen! Suddenly, Sosie’s seeing smiles too. Is she imagining things? Or are they really there?
The result is a combo psychological horror and good ol’ jump-scare horror, and it’s a lot of fun. Bacon is terrific desperately trying to hold it together, to appear normal, much like daddy Kevin Bacon did in Stir of Echoes. There is some cool camera work, including upside-down shots that add to the discombobulation. There’s also a nice bonus layer of Jerseyana here. The story takes place in and around Newark, Bacon’s boss is Harold and Kumar hero Kal Penn, and instead of White Castle a scene happens outside the Arlington Diner.
Others in the cast don’t quite match up to Bacon’s talent; I particularly didn’t buy Jessie T. Usher as her fiancé. And I was a little thrown off as to what time of year it was — there appeared to be some snow on the side of the road and yet later it’s definitely October. But the movie is very entertaining all the way through — I had 3.5 stars ready to go until a cool ending bumped it up to a soft 4. Thanks, young writer/director Parker Finn, for making me smile.
Jack Silbert, curator